UN launches probe into Russian abuses in Ukraine
GENEVA: The United Nations Human Rights Council voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to launch an inquiry into alleged serious violations committed by Russian troops in Ukraine, putting their conduct further under the microscope. Concerned by extrajudicial executions, civilian casualties, the use of torture and abuses against children, the council voted 33-2 to create an investigation into […]
Amid crisis, Lanka president vows to curtail own powers
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s embattled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa pledged on Wednesday to give up most of his executive powers but stopped short of yielding to demands for his resignation over the country’s economic crisis. The 72-year-old, in his first address to the nation since the start of a month-long protest campaign calling on him to quit, […]
Shoot-on-sight orders amid further unrest in Sri Lanka
COLOMBO: Sri Lankan authorities issued shoot-on-sight orders on Tuesday to quell further unrest a day after the island was rocked by deadly violence and rioting. With thousands of security forces enforcing a curfew, the defence ministry said troops “have been ordered to shoot on sight anyone looting public property or causing harm to life”. On […]
Putin invokes WWII victory to spur army in Ukraine
LONDON: Russian President Vladimir Putin evoked the memory of Soviet heroism in World War II to inspire his army fighting in Ukraine, but offered no new road map to victory and acknowledged the cost in Russian soldiers’ lives. Addressing massed ranks of service personnel on Red Square on the 77th anniversary of victory over Germany, […]
12.3 million children need aid in Syria, says UN
BEIRUT: More Syrian children are in need than at any time since a devastating civil war erupted over a decade ago, but funding for them is “dwindling”, the United Nations warned on Sunday. “Syria’s children have suffered for far too long and should not suffer any longer,” the UN children’s agency said in a statement, […]
North Korea fires likely submarine-launched ballistic missile: South Korea military
North Korea fired a ballistic missile on Saturday, South Korea’s military said, three days before the inauguration of South Korean President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, who has vowed to take a hard line against the North. South Korean military said that North Korea fired what is believed to be an submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) into the sea […]
Bangladesh detains 450 Rohingya celebrating Eid on beach
COX’S BAZAR: Bangladesh police detained 450 Rohingya celebrating Eidul Fitr on a beach, officials said on Thursday, in a further sign of growing intolerance towards the refugees. Bangladesh bans the 920,000 mostly Muslim Rohingya refugees from leaving camps surrounded by barbed wire in the southeast where they have been stuck for almost five years. Most […]
Sri Lanka opposition declares no confidence in government
Sri Lanka’s main opposition party on Tuesday issued a no-confidence declaration aiming at ousting Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and his Cabinet and blaming them of failing in their constitutional duty to provide a decent living standard amid the island nation’s worst economic crisis in memory. A group from United People’s Force party, led by leader […]
Tensions rise as West puts its weight decisively behind Ukraine
PARIS: Less cautious about its military support and more explicit in its war aims, the West shifted gears in its support for Ukraine this week despite the risk of a direct conflict with Russia. “We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done […]
Nine killed by bomb blasts on minibuses in Mazar-i-Sharif
KABUL: Two bomb blasts aboard separate minibuses killed at least nine people on Thursday in Afghanistan’s Mazar-i-Sharif, police said, a week after a deadly explosion rocked a Shia mosque in the northern city. The number of violent public attacks across Afghanistan has fallen since the Taliban returned to power last August, but the militant Islamic […]
